Posted
by
michael
on Thursday April 01, 2004 @01:30PM
from the real-submissions-unedited dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I'm considering naming my first-born child either Br4d or J4n37, depending on gender. My wife isn't too keen on the idea but there's plenty of time left to persuade her. Anyway, it had me wondering whether there are any people out there with real l337 speak given names (or even just a digit in their name). Do you know of any? Other than people saying your dad is a l4m3r, What are the possible pitfalls of having a digit in your name? Is it legal to have a digit in a name? Am I guaranteeing my child becomes a misfit? Am I the misfit?" Ask Jennifer 8. Lee.

In his novel "The Demolished Man", some of the characters (mostly the telepaths) had names that would now be considered internet slang names...Samuel @kins and someone else who last name was Wyg&, just to name a couple. But he was always ahead of his time. Maybe it was it just me, but I saw some of his influence in Stephenson's "Snow Crash". Hiro Protagonist has got to be the best name for a main character ever...!

Bester wrote "The Demolished Man" in 1953 when William Gibson was about 5.

You owe it to yourself to read "The Demolished Man." Aside from the prominent use of telepaths in the story, it was in every way a proto-cyberpunk novel as well as being just one of the best-written books I've ever read. Bester's "The Stars My Desitination" is even better, though. It takes an intelligent look at what society would be like if everyone could teleport at a whim and tosses it into the background of one of the most vivid revenge stories ever told. Gulliver Foyle is the single greatest "larger-than-life" protagonist that I've ever seen. His indomitable will is monstrous and his passion and fury leaps out and grabs the reader.

Yeah, why saddle someone with an offensive name. Yes, I know what Frigga means.
There was a high school basketball player in Iowa once named Fonda Dicks. That is one cruel father. And in my high school in the 1970's a guy moved into town and was in my class. His dad the Rev. Frost named his son Jack.
It is rough enough being a kid. Going through life with a joke is beyond the pale.
The original poster needs to get beyond a portion of his persona and start embracing the persona called "DAD". He needs to start embracing another part that is called "partner" and listen to his partner.
If he really wants to be cute - he can change his own name to a more geeklike persona.
Shalom,

Almost forgot about Frigga. Nice girl, I spent a whole day teling her what her name means.

Yeah, it'd be a pain to be named after the Norse Goddess [gods-heros-myth.com] of Love and Fertility. But you'd think she'd be able to understand that a little easier. Maybe you might want to pick up some mythology books next time, for help.

A written '3'-like symbol in german is actually a minor 'z'. The reason for this common misunderstanding is that the old type 'B' in recent grammatical reforms has been allowed to become 'ss', where it historically was 'sz' (i.e. tall 's', curved 'z').Incidentally, the 'B'-character is also referred to as 'the sharp s' as the 'z' requires a sharper pronounciation than double-s would.

One month, out of the blue, my long distance carrier began spelling my name "3cott" instead of "Scott." I phoned customer service to correct the change. Before I'd identified myself by name or explained my problem, the woman who'd answered the phone asked me for my account number. I told her, she tapped audibly on her computer keyboard, and after a pause she asked, "And am I speaking with Three-cott?" as if it were the most common name in the world.

In Indianapolis? I went to high school with his son, Peter Wacker (I'm not kidding). If your name was Richard Wacker, why in the world would you name your kid Peter? I heard Pete changed his name a couple years ago.

I was in a bar with some friends talking about people we know with goofy names like Peter Wacker and Claire Annette Reed. My friend's gf was being quiet and I asked her what was wrong. She said "Do you know what my name is?" and I said "Mandy" which is all I had ever called her. She inform

it's true. I have an uncommon enough name that when I do a google on my name in quotes, over half the results are actually about me. This has good and bad sides. For one thing, anyone who knows my name can find out a fair bit about me pretty fast. Fortunately nothing bad about me is really on the net, but who knows if it will stay that way.

On the other hand, I have a friend named John Smith who was arrested on pretty serious drug charges but managed to get off without a jail sentence. There are half a dozen articles on the internet that mention his name in this regard, but type John Smith into google and they're nowhere in the first thousand results.

Either way, the kid's emails will never get past the spam filters.Imagine it: j8Lee@wherever.eduor worse: Br4d.Cumming@whevever.eduSeriously, how much of your email has gotten bounced or blackholed over the years because of your name?

One problem would be taking standardized tests such as the SATs. There are no numbers in the section where you bubble in your name. Your child could lose the 400 points given for putting your name on the test...

I think you'll just wind up irreperably harming your child, as when they get to school and interact with kids, they'll be mercilessly made fun of. hey, if you want to be father to the next dylan kleybold, thats up to you, but do it in an isolated area where you will be the only casualty.

It wouldn't cause any more ridicule than naming a kid Pubert, which is a name I have actually heard of. But seriously, some people should be arrested for child abuse for coming up with some of these horrendously stupid names.

I'm considering naming my first-born child either Br4d or J4n37, depending on gender. My wife isn't too keen on the idea but there's plenty of time left to persuade her... considering you haven't even met her yet. Now move out of your parent's basement and stop posting April Fool's jokes.

OK, April Foole or not, your child deserves a real name, not a gag name or a spoof or your attempt to make a point or to be cute. You've no clue what will become of your child later in life, what path they will take, who they will work and live with. A name is one of few things you have control over in their life, and a bad/goofy name can really impact a child's psyche and who they become. My own father never outgrew the name Jan (old world version of John) and forever held it against his parents. If you need further reference, look at the flack that the musician Prince put up with when he changed his name to an unprononucable symbol. Do you really want people laughing at your kid behind his/her back the rest of their life?

Name them Robert, Sarah, Bruce, Steve, Karen, Jessica, whatever. Just don't get cute or play games with your kids name. It's too important for you to mess with.

Do you really want people laughing at your kid behind his/her back the rest of their life?

No fooling: my wife works at a children's hospital, and once had a child come through whose middle name was "Trash". The parent (singlular, of course) was just as caring as you might expect from someone who would do that to her child. In a fair world, a name like that on a birth certificate would be prima facie evidence of child abuse... whether you were thinking along the lines of Boy Named Sue [banned-width.com] or not.

I'm not ripping on the name Jan, no matter the culture it originates from. Here in the midwestern United States, in the 1950's, boys names Jan were ridiculed for having a girl's name (Jan being the shortened version of Janice). All through grade school, he was assigned to the girls side of things and caught a lot of flak for it. It really weighed heavily on him for the rest of his life. Believe it or not, a lot of folks around here were not too appreciative of someone with what was perceived as a foreign n

My first CS TA in college's first name was 'H' he said that it had caused him a lot of problems. In fact I just searched for him on Google and http://www.cs.pitt.edu/%7Ehcl/me/name.html this page explains it.

I know from personal experience.I have a strange name..Aram, Simple but different. . I've had a few people tell me what they were expecting from name someone "with a turban". Or my last name Com jean which some people think as french "you don't speak french???". I'm just a caucasion with some armenian mixed in.

My name I like, but I'm often pre judged on it. I can't imagine what Dweezle Zappa would go through if his father wasn't so famous.

The search on "Jennifer 8. Lee" brought back an interesting blog comment [norlos.com]: If it's simply the number eight, why does it have a period after it?

My grandfather's name is A C (let's call him Jonesmith for privacy). When he married my grandmother (first grandpa died before I was born), I thought his name was "Acee", like the local milk company [cgi.ebay.ca]. But his first name is "A", and his middle name is "C". And his full name is A C Jonesmith, not A. C. Jonesmith.

So the blogger is right -- if her middle name is "8", it should be "Jennifer 8 Lee", no period.

This is the ultimate in inconsiderate selfishness. The name you give a child is the name that child is going to be stuck with, at least until they're old enough to change it to something sensible. Children are not 'possessions' or baubles that hang around as a display of your status or in this case you 'geekiness'. Consequently the name you give a child is something very serious and deserving of every bit of consideration you can give it and more. With more idiots like this naming their children in the same way they would name a pet or even a car, I would not be surprised to see more lawsuits in the future by offspring pissed off at their parents for the lifetime of humiliation heaped upon them by these inconsiderate jerkwads who don't deserve the title of 'parent'. You don't think it'll happen? There's already cases of young men suing their parents over being circumcised - a very common practice until recently. A child's name is NOT a joke. Grow the hell up!

To put it into perspective. "Prince Michael" might not be old enough to care right now, but once he's a young adult, do you think he's really going to appreciate the amount of consideration is self-obsessed ass-wipe of a father gave his name?

I'm getting married soon and I looked up the laws about changing your name in a couple different states, Washington, Oregon, and Ohio, and every single one of the says that it's alright to have a number spelled out, but having a numeral isn't allowed. Granted, things may be different outside of the US.

Okay, I just want to set the record straight on this story since it's actually on-topic for once. I know Jenny Lee. We went to the same college, she was class of '99 and I was class of '00 (yes, you can easily figure out where that is if you want).

She uses the number "8" in her byline, a clever device she came up with to differentiate herself from the hordes of other Asian girls named "Jennifer Lee". In fact, I believe there was actually another Jennifer Lee at her high school (Stuyvesant, in NYC, if I remember correctly) that wrote for the paper and she wanted to differentiate herself.

Lots of people have made up stories about the origins of "that wacky NY Times writer's middle initial", that her parents gave her the middle intial "8" because it's a lucky number in China or some such thing. These stories were either made up by silly people or things she once told at a party after a few beers just to see if people would actually believe them, and they have propagated over the Internet (because when you are a Circuits writer, you get geek-fans). The 8 is a creation of her own. Why 8 rather than 9 or 10? I believe because she thought it sounded cool, though the number may have some other personal significance.

So these days she may actually tell people her name is Jennifer 8. Lee because that's her byline and it's become associated with her. But it certainly wasn't her given name by her parents, and to the best of my knowledge she has never gone and changed her legal name or anything of that sort.

This guy [slashdot.org] changed his name to Tronster in homage to the movie Tron [imdb.com] and so that it would match his old BBS handle. Yes, his name is actually now Tronster [tronster.com]. Okay, maybe it isn't as l337 as 7r0n513r, but still.

The actual reference from your link says "You can not use numbers in your name, like 911, in order to intentionally confuse people." From that, I take it that if your intent is not to confuse, you can use numbers in your name. If not, they should revise their wording in that statement.

Apple's own Bo3b Johnson [google.com]. He's been a member of Apple Developer Support since time immemorial, and has managed to get Bo3b on credit cards and (it's rumored) drivers licences since way before many slashdotters were born.

if you want to give your child an unusual name, at least give him or her something s/he can abbreviate to something less unusual if s/he turns out to be more conservative than you, otherwise, s/he could have some problems, among other things, with finding a job, people assuming the name has typo or is a joke name (but I have a vewy good fwiend in Wome named Biggus Dickus!).

even some foreigners are starting to modify their names due to embarrassing phonetic correlation in English... like this Vietnamese person I know: real name "Phuoc". (side note: a friend of mine who is a native French speaker took her child to the Toronto zoo once, and she was teaching her to say the animal names in French. The people around her were evidently scandalized to see this mother teach her daughter to point at a seal and to say: "un phoque!")

That being said, I also know a guy named Richard Hertz, who everyone calls Dick. No joke.

I wouldnt be surprised if one day someone starts an agency to research names that have absolutely no bad connotations in any language.

A friend of my sister had twins and (no joke) named them Orangello and Lemongello (Orange jello and Lemon jello, get it?). They are of school age now, and their names are practially urban legends, but as far as I've heard havent had any problems because of their names.

We are expecting a child in october and I am trying to convince my wife to name it "Princess 247" if it's a girl and "Hot_Wheels 180" if it's a boy.

Her most convincing arguments have to do with the standardized testing that is going on in the schools now. Unless I can show her a bubble sheet with numbers for the middle initial or an underscore for the first name they are out of consideration. (I releneted on the colouring of the names as well, since I was going to make the "Hot" red and the "Wheels" a dark rubber grey but there's a chance the boy may be colour blind).

Dose anyone work for the ITBS tests or the CAT tests and can upgrade the bubble sheets for this? It doesn't have to be immediate, Since it is at least 5-7 years away until they will test I think that if I can show they will be there by then I can make her budge. That will show her to make comprimizes that aren't!

unless you expect your first-born to be either masculine or feminine. English grammar does not have genders, which is why most people don't realize how screwed up this sounds (because they don't know what the word gender means). In many (most?) other languages words have geneders, e.g. in French a table is of feminine gender and in Russian it's masculine. Gender is purely a grammar term. Confusing the words "gender" and "sex" is equivalent to using "it" when referring to a person.

That's true for other languages, but you might have consulted a dictionary before attempting (incorrectly and pedantically) to correct the poster regarding English usage. As seen from definitions 2-3, gender is an acceptable term in English to refer to a male/female distinction for humans.

Other languages can do what they like, but simply because English is different from other languages doesn't make it wrong. Many languages use one word for two usages that are split in other languages See below. Sex and gender in this usage are accepted synonyms.

*****************

gender ( P ) Pronunciation Key (jndr)
n.

1. Grammar.

1. A grammatical category used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.

2. One category of such a set.
3. The classification of a word or grammatical form in such a category.
4. The distinguishing form or forms used.

2. Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture.

3. a) The condition of being female or male; sex.
b) Females or males considered as a group: expressions used by one gender.

Gender is the personal expression of sexual identity. Definition 2 hits this directly, though I could see why an etymologyst would list the grammatical definition of gender first. The 3rd definition is more common usage, but it is split in half with 3b supporting the classification schema definition. Note, none of these definitions refer specifically to biology, just identity perception. And as the baby is too young to have a well formed sexual identity perception, it can be said to be biologically male or female, but it cannot be said to be psychologically masculine or feminine.

IMHO, the best part of/.'s 04/01 are posts like these. I (and many others) get a real kick out of the whiners and complainers who bitch about "unfunny" posts. Last year was a riot! Not only were the massively-duped stories great, but the bitching was top-notch. I think a few people may have actually left the site permanently!

Anyway, I've been trying to guess the "theme" for this year's topic and I think perhaps tomorrow that it will be revealed that all these "unfunny" stories are all actually real news/submissions that the mods have been queuing up for a while just for today. But I dunno. I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride.